"It is the policy of the Commonwealth of Virginia that personal information about citizens will be collected only to the extent necessary to provide the service of benefit desired; that only appropriate information will be collected; that citizens shall understand the reason the information is collected and be able to examine their personal record which is maintained by a public body"
For each visitor, the Virginia Department of Health Professions (DHP) collects information about your visit. This information does not identify you personally and is limited to: the Internet Protocol (IP) address, type of browser used, the date and time of the visit, the IP addresses of the locations to which the visitor linked during his or her visit to our Web site and the pages you visit. This information is strictly used for statistical reporting purposes and allows the department to track the number of customers who visit our site and identify the most popular pages so that it can improve site content and accessibility.
Though personal information may be required either by law or in order for the DHP to provide a requested service, in doing so the agency is subject to the requirements for administering information systems as established in the Government Data Collection and Dissemination Practices Act of Virginia (Code of Virginia, §§ 2.2-3800 through 2.2-3809). A different agency or entity, whose practices are not under the control of DHP, may regulate pages that appear after you click on a link.
When you log on to one of the agency's current online services, such as the Online Licensing, the personal information that you submit is captured to enable you to conduct business with DHP. In addition, the agency collects the following information about your visit: Internet Protocol address, browser type, the name of the domain from which you access the Internet, and the date and time of your visit. The personal information you provide is required to enable you to complete various purchase or subscription transactions with the agency online and for DHP to deliver the requested services. DHP will only collect, retain, and use personal information when it believes it is essential, and allowed by law, to conduct business and provide products and services. Should you not desire to provide the requested personal information, DHP will not be able to provide you with online services.
Personal information that you provide to the agency is safeguarded according to the laws of the Commonwealth of Virginia. Information that you provide on the online surveys is used to improve the online services that the agency offers and to determine your level of satisfaction with the DHP site and services.
To promote Web access for people with disabilities the Virginia Department of Health Professions strives to meet all guidelines of the World Wide Web Consortium's (W3C) Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI).
"Cookies" are small files either stored on a server or sent back to a visiting computer. In certain applications user information is stored as "cookies" of the type that are then sent back and stored on the user's computer. No user information is gathered through cookies except for that needed to run the specific application. For certain applications temporary cookies are created to identify an individual and maintain a secure and proper connection during an online transaction.
The DHP web site has links to other web sites. These include links to web sites operated by other government agencies, nonprofit organizations and private businesses. When you link to another site, you are no longer on the DHP web site and this Privacy Policy will not apply. When you link to another Web site, you are subject to the privacy policy of that new site.
Links to other sites are included to provide useful and valuable information to visitors. Hypertext links to external web sites and pages may be removed or replaced at the sole discretion of DHP, at any time without notice. The inclusion of a hypertext link to an external web site is not intended as an endorsement of any product or service offered or referenced on the linked web site, the organizations sponsoring said web site, or any views that might be expressed or referenced in the web site.
Read the FOIA policy in Guidance document 76-35.
The Department of Health Professions will review this document periodically in an effort to assure that this information is complete and accurate.
Neither DHP, nor any employee of the Department warrants the accuracy, reliability or timeliness of any information published through its web site system, nor endorses any content, viewpoints, products or services linked from the system, and shall not be held liable for any losses caused by reliance on the accuracy, reliability or timeliness of such information. Portions of such information may be incorrect or outdated. Any person or entity that relies on any information obtained from the system does so at his or her own risk.
If any of these policies change it will be noted on this page.